The judging panel for the prestigious
Shortlist Music Prize has been confirmed, with a huge array of names joining some of last year's judges.
Norah Jones, Robert Smith, Jack Black and Perry Farrell are just a few of the new faces added to the judging panel which last year awarded the trophy to Damien Rice's "O".
The 2004 panel of listmakers will also include Chris Carraba (Dashboard Confessional), Will-I-Am (Black Eyed Peas), Serj Tankian (System of a Down), the Dixie Chicks, John Mayer, Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson (the Roots), Massive Attack's 3D, and the film director Jim Jarmusch, as well as radio personality Nic Harcourt, and journalists Neil Strauss, Josh Tyrangiel, Toure, Thor Christensen, Margeaux Watson, and Tom Moon. The panel's initial "Long List" of nominated albums will be released in late August, and the "Shortlist" of ten finalists will be announced in mid-September.
Previous winners of the award, which honors the year's most creative and adventurous albums, are Damien Rice, N*E*R*D and Sigur Ros, and nominees have included Bright Eyes, The Streets, Ryan Adams, Bjork, Solomon Burke, The White Stripes, the Flaming Lips, PJ Harvey and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
The panel's initial "Long List" of nominated albums will be released in late August, and the "Shortlist" of ten finalists will be announced in mid-September. This year's event will be broadcast by MTV2 and XMSatellite Radio.
"As the Shortlist Music Prize becomes more established, the artists who win our award have a wonderful chance to grow their audience," says Shortlist co-founder Greg Spotts, citing last year's winner Damien Rice as an artist whose record sales exploded in the months following last October's Shortlist Concert and companion MTV2 television special.
